


I Found

by Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492



Series: Aguilar de Nera x Maria Fics [2]
Category: Assassin's Creed (2016) - Fandom, Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Origins, bloodlines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 13:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11464278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492/pseuds/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492
Summary: Post-Movie. The years following Maria's death that leads to Aguilar's later years in life.Based on the song, I Found by Amber Run.





	I Found

After their deaths, Aguilar heads back to the headquarters outside of Seville alone and in pain. 

His body is covered in injuries given to him through this journey to defend the last stronghold in Spain, but he is better off that the others.

 

The nonactive members of the Brotherhood will go out to retrieve the bodies; the villagers may have buried his fallen brothers, the Templars may have disposed of his mentors body, and for all he knows Maria may have been disposed of by Torquemada himself. There could be nothing left, they may not even be able to get all of their fallen brothers, and  _Maria-_

 

It had always been a possibility. One that she reminded him of every time he let his emotions show. He just never believed that it  _could_ happen even if the chance was always there. Maria had been his mentor, the one who would take Bennedicto's place if anything was to happen, the master assassin that had been raised to be just that. She was better skilled, more precise in her movements and actions, until it all seemed like a dance.   _She_ deserved to live.  _She_ was the one that would be needed during this recovery, but she was  _gone._

 

Maria was  _gone_ , leaving only their daughter and a necklace for him. Leaving behind her personal belongings from their times as nomads, the codex's filled with her writing on information and history and the ones she has fought beside, the black Andalusian stallion that she had taken from a Templar.

 

The hidden blade that she had been making for their daughter even though she is only three. 

 

_Gods, Josephine is only three._

* * *

* * *

When Aguilar sees her again _-alone-_ their little girl is five and there is nothing left of the Assassin Brotherhood.

* * *

* * *

When Aguilar hands away his daughter, his little Maria, that is the day that he truly wishes he had died.

Josephine will stay with a farmer and his family until Aguilar can return for her. Possibly with her half-sibling if he is lucky.

 

It is no secret that Maria had a child before Aguilar had come along. Or at least it had been to him until she explained that Josephine would be her second time with child. He didn't want to pry, Maria had been alive for a long time before he came along, and he himself had a child already as well. 

 

His own child, a son, had been all that was left of his wife. They had lived in Nerha and although the marriage had been a political one it had also been one of love. However, Katrina died in childbirth and Aguilar could not raise a child. Give it what it would need, so he gave it away. Back to her side of the family who planned on raising it as a noble towards the western sea. 

 

The child was well off, but now,  _now_ Aguilar wanted the child that Maria had all of those years ago. He wanted to know them, to tell them of their mother, and of their half-sister. He wanted to look at that child and think that Maria had done well in her life.

 

His only information on it, however, came from Maria's journal. An account on her early life as a novice. The pages were thin, worn down by time, but the words were clear. Maria did not like speaking of her child's father, but she detailed how she had a son who she had given away to a family of nobles up north. A family that she knew would love and care for her child when she could not. 

 

That little detail shows a flaw, a problem, because there is an Inquisition between himself and Maria's child. 

 

___He still goes anyways._

* * *

* * *

_Aguilar never finds her son. Only an empty home. A sign that they must have left Aragon to go into France._

_He returns to Josephine, she is eight now, with empty hands._

* * *

* * *

Years pass before Aguilar begins to feel a pain in his side.

 

It is a dull throb at first, leaving behind sharp pains here and there, where he had been injured by hitting the cliff side. Or at least that is what he suspects has caused it.

 

He thinks nothing of it, because thinking of such things makes him think of Maria.

 

Josephine is twelve now, looks just as her mother had, and it isn't until she turns thirteen that she stops smiling. The acts are not sudden, they happen over time, and when he ask about it she simply says that she doesn't feel well. It makes him want to stay. To not go to Madrid to speak with an Assassin from a different Brotherhood, but she insist he goes so he does.

 

When he returns, six months have gone by, and he knows that her birthday is coming up. 

He digs through the belongings of Maria's that have been placed within the tombs until he finds it. The hidden blades that she had been making for Josephine.

The leather has cracked, the metal becoming dull, so Aguilar puts behind his return so he can fix it. He replaces the leather with fresh brown leather like his own and blue cloth, sharpening the silver and gold blade before setting it back in place.

 

When he goes to surprise her she is ill.

 

Josephine, only thirteen now, smiles at him weakly from the bedside. Her skin is pale and clamy against his touch. Her reddish-brown hair sticks to her face, but some of it has fallen out around her. Sweat gleaming against the freckles on her cheeks, and when she looks up at him she is afraid. Fear is in her vivid blue eyes, but she keeps her jaw clinched in determination. 

"Papa." She greets, and Aguilar tries to not show his worry because he  _is worried._

"I have a gift for you from your mother."

Her blue eyes wide at that and for a moment he thinks that he can imagine her not ill. Just happy. His happy Josephine.

When he presents the hidden blades for her she cries. They are tears of joy because against Aguilar's wishes Josephine was her mother's daughter. She wanted to be an Assassin like her mother, to fight beside him.

"Thank you papa. Thank you mama." 

She adds the last part softly, and for the first time in a long time Aguilar stays beside his daughter. They do not speak of Maria often, so later that night he tells her everything about her. About how she had a talent for making hidden blades. That she loved horses and drawing, even keeping old moor books on astronomy. 

Josephine listens to it with eagerness as she holds the hidden blades to her chest.

 

 

 

_She dies the next year._

* * *

* * *

Aguilar lays her to rest in a field of flowers near the Assassin Tombs with those hidden blades upon her arms.

 

_He contemplates death for the rest of that night._

* * *

* * *

For a long time he stays within the room that his Josephine had once been in. Listening to the stories of her mother.

 

Aguilar forgets about the world, and the thought of death becomes far too tempting than it should be. Perhaps because there is nothing left. There is no Brotherhood, no Maria, no Josephine. For all he knows, Maria's son could have died in the Inquisition, his age would match to that of a young soldier.

 

Eventually someone comes in, a man and a woman, dressed in the clothing of Assassin's with signa's belonging to the Ottoman Empire.

"Aguilar?" The man's voice says, and when the spaniard looks up the man before him has his eyes.  _He doesn't say a thing._ Just watches as they step deeper into the room and then he sees it. A small little girl with her dark hair cut into a bob and warm dark eyes that for a second seem blue. 

"I've been searching for you for some time. I-I am your son, and this-this is my wife and my daughter. Your grand-daughter."

 

 

For the first time in months, Aguilar feels something besides the pain in his side that seems to grow with each day and the lain in his heart that doesn't help.

 

 

 _He cries later that night_ , and for what feels to be another first in what seems to be a growing list he stops. Standing at the doorway is the little girl, with her dark hair cut into a bob, black markings covering her face, that barely shows beneath her tan hood. 

"Can you tell me of them?" She ask in a small voice.

Aguilar almost says no, but instead he says something else. "Who?"

She looks down at her feet, and replies in an even softer voice.

_____"Everyone."_ __

* * *

* * *

_He tells her of Maria, of the son that she had and their daughter Josephine. He tells her of Bennedicto and the rest of the Brotherhood. He even tells her of Ojeda and the Inquisition._

_She abosorbs this knowledge with wide eyes filled with wisdom, and in return she tells him of the Ottoman Empire. Of the Assassin named Yusuf Tazim that she hopes will train her someday._

_Eventually she gets tired though and Aguilar gets tired with her._

_But for some reason he feels off as he allows his granddaughter to lay her head upon his arm. Not the action. Just him._

 

 

 

_He doesn't wake up in the morning_

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I may continue this depending on how it is received, and it will expand into the rest of the AC Universe.
> 
> Aguilar and Maria both had children individually, however, according to Sophia Rikkin's timeline of Aguilar's bloodline it shows that they did have a daughter together. Somewhere from around 1490 to her stated date of death in 1504. Her name is not fully given, as it is cut off, but enough is given to read as either Josephine/Josephina.
> 
> If you didn't notice it, Aguilar's granddaughter is Sophia Rikkin's ancestor that we see in the Animus. At least that is my headcanon for her character. That she is the granddaughter of Aguilar de Nerha, who is raised in the Ottoman Empire(being an Ottoman Assassin in the Animus), and that she grew up listening of stories about Maria. Which is why she has tattoos on her face as Maria had.


End file.
